8 | REVOLUTION | revcom.us | November 18, 2007 | Special Revolution Pull-out on the Danger of U.S. War on Iran November 18, 2007 | revcom.us | REVOLUTION | 9

60 Years of U.S. Intervention in Iran:Nothing But Horrors for the People

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Right now, the U.S. government is threatening war on Iran. 60years of U.S. intervention in Iran show that the U.S. has broughtnothing but horrors for the people of Iran.

1953: The CIA Installs a DictatorIn the early 1950s, Iran wasruled by British imperialismand its puppet, the tyrannical

Shah [King] Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Companycontrolled the country’s main sourceof wealth—oil—and reaped millions inprofits. Most Iranians were impover-ished peasants, enslaved on the land.Iran’s oil workers toiled for 50 cents aday and lived in polluted slums with-out water or electricity.

A movement of millions arose thatdrove the hated Shah from the country.Mohammed Mossadegh became PrimeMinister and attempted to nationalizeIran’s oil. Controlling Iran andexploiting its oil were crucial to theirimperialist empires. In 1953, the CIAand the British organized a coup thatoverthrew Mossadegh and returnedthe Shah to power, crushed hisopponents, and instituted a ruthlessdictatorship. Mossadegh’s oilnationalization was reversed, and fullcontrol was returned to Western oilcorporations.

1977-1979: Fall of Shah and Rise of Islamic Regime

In 1978, a wave of mass revolution built across Iranagainst the hated Shah. The U.S. backed the Shah’s attempts to drown the revolution in blood—for instance, his September 1978“Bloody Friday” massacre of thousands of protesters. When it became clear that the Shah was losing control, the U.S. switched

tactics. The Shah was pushed into exile, and the U.S. helped the reactionary Islamic fundamentalist regime led by Ayatollah Khomeiniconsolidate power and usher in a new nightmare for Iran’s people. The U.S. rulers thought they could work through the Islamic Republicbecause Iran’s theocratic rulers had no intention or ability to fully break with imperialism. And the U.S. backed the Islamic regime’sbrutal repression of revolutionary and progressive Iranians.

1980-87: U.S. Fuels Slaughter in the Persian GulfThe Khomeini regime was bent on promoting Islamic fundamentalism andexpanding its role in the region. In November 1979, Khomeini encouragedIslamic students to seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. All this clashed

sharply with U.S. efforts to maintain its domination of the Middle East. So in 1980,the U.S. gave Iraq’s Saddam Hussein a green light to invade Iran, and then helpedturn the Iran-Iraq War into an eight-year bloodbath. U.S. allies supplied Iraq withbillions in arms and materials that Hussein turned into chemical weapons, which heused on Iranians (and Iraqi Kurds). TheU.S. also armed Iran, and played bothsides against each other to preventeither from winning. When the warfinally ended, a total of 367,000 Iraqisand Iranians had been killed, and anestimated 700,000 injured or wounded.

Bush Regime ThreatensMore Aggression AgainstIran

The goal of Bush’s “war onterror” is to defeat theIslamic fundamentalist

forces who pose obstacles to U.S.imperialist interests so that the U.S.rulers can more directly control andexploit the whole Middle East, as akey part of creating an unchallengedand unchallengeable global empire.

The Bush regime is making all kindsof accusations against Iran to justifystepped-up threats. These are thesame proven liars who sold the waron Iraq with the “Weapons of MassDestruction” hoax, and nobodyshould accept what they say as true.But even if all the things that theU.S. says about the Iranian regimewere true—that they are anoppressive theocracy, are aidingforces in Iraq that attack the U.S.,have ambitions of being a nuclearpower—none of that would make aU.S. attack on Iran anything but IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION.

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Tehran •

The Shah of Iran visiting U.S. President Jimmy Carter, November1977.

A protest against British rule, 1951.

"Bloody Friday": The Shah's troops kill thousands of anti-government protesters,September 1978.

U.S. warships on an “Expeditionary Strike Force Exercise” in the Persian Gulf, June 2007.

Above: Iranian Prime MinisterMossadegh reads statementnationalizing Iran's oil, 1953.Right: Iranian soldiers guardthe Shah's palace after the1953 CIA-engineered coupousting Mossadegh frompower, August 1953.

1953-1979: The Nightmare Under U.S. Domination

Between 1953and 1979, theU.S. was the

dominant power in Iran.Did it use this power tomake life better forIranians? No; life underU.S. domination was anightmare. The Shahruled Iran with an ironfist through his hatedsecret police, SAVAK,which the U.S. trainedand organized. SAVAKimprisoned, tortured,and murdered hugenumbers of Iranians whodared to oppose theregime. The Shah madethe economy totallysubservient to the Westand spent billionsturning Iran into a U.S.military outpost. Meanwhile,60 percent of Iranians wereilliterate, life expectancy wasonly 50 years, 139 of every1,000 children died in theirfirst year, and millions livedin rural poverty or sprawlingurban slums.

Above: Protesters taking over an army tank duringthe mass upsurge against the Shah, 1979.

Left: Iraqi prisoners of war executed by Iraniantroops during the Iran-Iraq war, Bostan, Iran,December 1981

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Torture device used by U.S.-backedIranian secret police to pull outfingernails of detainees.

Children in a Kurdish village in Iranian Kurdistan,1979. 26 years after the U.S.-backed Shahpromised land reform, many villages were stillwithout water, electricity, schools and hospitals.

For a fuller background and history, read the 9-part series by Larry Everest— “The U.S. & Iran: A History of Imperialist Domination, Intrigue and Intervention”—available online at revcom.us/iran-history

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